What did you think of The Green Hornet?

After many long years, the Green Hornet movie might finally get off the ground thanks to... Seth Rogen? That's what Variety would have us believe:

Seth Rogen, action star?

The doughy star of this summer's breakout hit, "Knocked Up," is finalizing a deal to write, and likely star in, Columbia's bigscreen adaptation of "Green Hornet." He will exec produce, along with co-writer and frequent collaborator Evan Goldberg.

Rogen would play Brit Reid, millionaire publisher-turned-masked crime fighter -- a role George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and Jake Gyllenhaal flirted with in various stages of the project's long gestation.

"The Green Hornet" started as a radio serial before being turned into a comicbook, film and TV skein by the 1960s. TV show was notable for the presence of the late Bruce Lee as sidekick Kato, a kung fu expert with a killer car.

However, the project -- which seems almost old-fashioned compared with today's elaborate superhero movies -- has struggled to get off the ground in recent years. Universal and Miramax both abandoned the project before producer Neal Moritz set it up at Columbia a few months ago (Daily Variety, March 21).

Rogen has developed into a potent double threat at the instigation of Judd Apatow, who cast the Canadian in "Undeclared" while he was still a teen and then pushed him to write for the short-lived skein. Rogen co-produced and appeared in a key supporting role in Apatow's "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and has since set up several writing and acting projects around town. "Superbad," the first script he wrote with Goldberg, will bow from Columbia next month.

He originally wrote it for himself, but the project took so long to get off that ground that he has a supporting role as a cop in it. Rogen is skedded to appear at Comic-Con next week to tubthump the movie.

Also in the works: "The Pineapple Express," which he co-wrote and will star in for Col; and "Drillbit Taylor," a Paramount project. He has several acting projects in the works, including "The Spiderwick Chronicles," "Fanboys" and a voice for "Horton Hears a Who."

Because they're obnoxious assholes who are always trying to coin new words in the entertainment industry. Skein means a new property or title either on TV or in the movies, I think. There are tons of phrases like this; all of them equally annoying.

I'd like to see Clooney play Brit Reid, and maybe someone like Jet Li as Kato. But as a comedy? Eh.

Because they're obnoxious assholes who are always trying to coin new words in the entertainment industry. Skein means a new property or title either on TV or in the movies, I think. There are tons of phrases like this; all of them equally annoying.

For you guys, "Variety Speak" from "Animaniacs." The song doesn't kick in until about a minute thirty in.

burlivesleftnut wrote:Actually, once you see how super trim and um... normal looking he is in Superbad, you might change your mind.

Huh. I knew he had something to do with the writing and shit, but I didn't know he was in it. I think that movie looks pretty funny.

Seth Rogen playing Green Hornet? No way in hell. Not unless it's a spoof.

Actually, once you see how super trim and um... normal looking he is in Superbad, you might change your mind.

But does he look like a "millionaire publisher"?

Actually, yes. Wait to see superbad or at least some promo shots from the film before judging. He looks lean and has a charisma I had not seen from him before. I will add, that until seeing Superbad, I didn't like Rogen. At. All.

DennisMM wrote:Actually, The Green Hornet is one of those heroes who can manage being out of shape. He carries guns and Kato does the ass-kicking. Until I see otherwise, I'm calling Rogen a poor choice.

I saw what you did there... you zigged before you zagged. That was an interesting bait and switch Honestly, I totally thought you were down with Rogen, then bam, switcheroo.

Did you ever watch the show? It was a 180 from what Batman was doing at the same time, (and they were both produced by fox at the same time) If you ever watched the CROSSOVER show they did, you'd see the diffrence from Batman's camp and Green Hornets straightforwardness.

I own the series on bootleg, and its actually really good and fairly straight forward.

RT wrote:If you greeted the news of Seth Rogen starring in a new Green Hornet movie less than enthusiastically, you were not alone -- something Rogen is aware of, and to his credit, not terribly concerned about.

Speaking with MTV Movies, Rogen sums up the online response to his plans for Green Hornet as follows:

"[The fan reaction] was a little surprising. I love the idea! I think it's going to be a unique and interesting movie," the jocular always-self-deprecating Rogen announced, before adding with a laugh, "but nerds love complaining. You go on Ain't It Cool News, and everybody complains about everything. They could find out Jesus Christ was making a movie with Frank Miller, and they'd say, 'That's a terrible combination!' "

Describing his Hornet vision as "not like any superhero movie...more like a regular action movie," Rogen says that he and co-writer Evan Goldberg have prepared two outlines for the film -- one comedic, the other less so -- but admits that "it's really hard to wrap our head around the movie until we've written the script," something that will have to wait until the writers' strike is resolved.

And what about the idea that Rogen and Goldberg shouldn't be trying to write an action movie at all? Again, Rogen understands the skepticism, but tells MTV that fans should wait until they see his next movie, The Pineapple Express, described in the article as "a high-octane action/comedy."

Rogen and [co-writer] Goldberg have been hard at work hammering out a draft and figuring out what kind of tone they'd like to strike. Their options boil down to this: were they writing Kato as a Jet Li-type asskicker or a more comedic (but still formidable) Stephen Chow type. It sounded like Rogen and Goldberg were leaning toward Chow last year, and, happily, that hasn't changed: they definitely want some Chow. What they don't want, however, is a bumbling Green Hornet; preferably, the film's comedy would come out of a less traditional take on the hero/sidekick relationship. In Rogen's own words, No movie has done this since Batman and Robin.

Should I call you Bullet? Tooth?
You can call me Susan if it makes you happy.

I dont think this should be a comedy. Seth Rogaine as Brit Reid? WTF is that about? Hes a big curly haired chunk. They need to do this as a straight up serious action film and have some good stars in there. I dont want some Starsky and Hutch-esque film. Blech.

"It's a very intense action movie and the relationship between Green Hornet and Kato, a lot of comedy comes from that. At first actually, we weren't even sure going in we could be more of a gently type guy who maybe isn't the funniest guy in the world, but he's physically very impressive or whether it would be more of a Stephen Chow type guy who can do martial arts, but clearly has a sense of humor. In the version that we've made it seems like a Stephen Chow type guy would be more suitable for the role. Again, until they officially greenlight it, it's hard to make any of those decisions," Rogen continued.

But that isn't stopping the comedian from searching for someone to helm the comic book film. "We have been meeting with directors and stuff even though we haven't been greenlit. We just kind of took it upon ourselves to kind of begin conservations with people. I'm really excited. It seems like it might really happen."

Wasn't The Green Hornet a radio serial turn TV Show? Like the Shadow there were comics spun off from it.

From my experience with some people in the industry they probably hear "i have this idea ... for the green hornet" and say something like " oh yeah, that show was so corny and stupid, i can't believe that i like it...let's get Jack Black o play the lead!". They probably aren't open minded enough to make it dark. Thank god for the great minds at DC in the 80s / Tim Burton or we might be seeing Will Ferrell as Batman and Jonah Hill as Robin.

Fantasea wrote:Rogen as The Green Hornet!?!? This is a joke, right? This has to be a joke. This is a joke![u][/u]

No...This is a joke...

The Green Hornet and Kato walk into a bar...Green Hornet is holding a paper bag in his one hand...They both go and sit down at the bar and order some beer.Kato finally gets The Hornet to show him what's in the bag...Hornet reaches into the paper bag, and proceeds to pull out a 12 inch Pianist playing a similarly miniatured piano, and places it on the bar.Kato is understandably confused, and he mentions this to Hornet.Green Hornet takes a couple of large swigs of beer, and then a deep breath...eventually he decides to spill the beans.Rumour has it that The Green Hornet met up with a mystical genie...but it was a very lazy ass genie...so it only gave the Hornet one wish...

Kato still doesn't understand...Why would the Hornet wish for a 12 inch Pianist...?Hornet chugs back the remainder of his beer in one fell swoop of his mouth...He turns back to his trusty Kato, and says:

The Green Hornet wrote:Well...there seems to have been a bit of a communication problem...

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the director-star of SHAOLIN SOCCER, KUNG FU HUSTLE and CJ7 (reportedly a cinch for Moriarty Jr.'s 2008 Top Ten list) will indeed call the shots on this long-gestating project (currently scheduled for a June 25, 2010 release). This will also serve as Stephen Chow's American filmmaking debut, which is pretty cool considering that the televised GREEN HORNET introduced Chow's hero, Bruce Lee, to American audiences back in the 1960s. Here's Chow's quote from the Reporter:

"I'm excited to be taking on 'The Green Hornet' -- obviously I've been a huge fan of the show since I was a kid," Chow said. "The idea of stepping into Bruce Lee's shoes as Kato is both humbling and thrilling, and to get the chance to direct the project as my American movie debut is simply a dream come true."